As is well known in the art, conventional inkjet printers generally employ one or more inkjet cartridges, often called “pens”, which eject drops of ink onto a page or sheet of print media. For instance, two earlier thermal ink ejection mechanisms are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,278,584 and 4,683,481, both assigned to Hewlett-Packard Company. The pens are usually mounted on a carriage, which is arranged to scan across a scan axis relative to a sheet of print media as the pens print a series of individual drops of ink on the print media. The series of drops collectively form a band or “swath” of an image, such as a picture, chart or text. Between scans, the print medium is advanced relative to the scan axis. In this manner, an image may be incrementally printed.
Generally, ink is provided in replaceable ink containers or supplies, which are designed to interface with the printer. Such ink supplies are sometimes provided in a range of different volumes. In this way a user may select the volume of an ink supply in dependence upon the expected usage rate. If the volume is too small, it will require frequent replacement. If, on the other hand, the volume is too large, it may reside in the printer for a period of time that exceeds the shelf life of the ink. Thus, in the case of a high throughput inkjet printer, for example, suitable ink supplies may be available in a range of volumes such as 0.2 to 1.0 liters.
In printer systems which are adapted to be used with varying sizes of ink containers, it is often viewed as desirable, in order to save space and expense, to ensure that the same ink container interface associated with the printer system may be used with various differently sized ink containers. In order to allow both small and large volume ink containers to be installed in a printer system, it is known to use a spacer, or interconnecting part to facilitate the installation of the small volume ink containers. In such systems, however, the user must usually buy one or more interconnecting parts. Such interconnecting parts represent an inconvenience for many users, since they may be difficult to use. Furthermore, such interconnecting parts must be stored while they are not being used and during such times they may be lost or damaged.
Another known way of supplying such ink containers or supplies having a range of different volumes is to market a single size of ink supply container but filled with ink to varying degrees. In this manner, high volume users may purchase fully filled ink supply containers and lower volume users may purchase partially filled ink supply containers. In this manner, each user may purchase the volume of ink that he or she desires. However, such an approach is relatively wasteful both in terms of the material that is used to manufacture the ink supply containers that are only partially filled and in terms of space that is required to store them.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a hardcopy device, or servicing apparatus for use in a hardcopy device, which addresses one or more problems encountered in the prior art.